Learning vocabulary

Vocabulary cannot be really learned by looking at words, writing them down, and then writing the translations of words. Vocabulary learning is a large part of the work when studying a language.

There are different ways of learning vocabulary and the aspects which are important will vary with the word itself and the purpose for which you want to use it.

As teachers we have learned ways of teaching vocabulary and probably use a variety of presentation techniques, such as building a context or situation (at the doctor's); using flashcards or working from known language to unknown language - 'huge' is another word for very, very big. However, as we all experience, learners do not necessarily learn everything we teach them. The key is to look for successful learning techniques. Naturally, different techniques will suit different learners.

If students must react in some way to the vocabulary being learned, they will learn better. Vocabulary can be processed at various levels:

• Cognitive: students can process, make decisions about, categorise or rank words.
• Affective: they can associate words with something significant to them, they can express their feelings about words and through words.
• Physical: they can learn the sound and stress pattern of a word, and can give a physical reaction to it, a technique used in a method known as Total Physical Response.

Here, there are some activities for learning vocabulary taking into account the levels mentioned above:

• Students follow the teacher's instructions, acting them out: 'Walk to the wall', 'Raise your left hand' 'Touch the wall'...
• The teacher asks students to close their eyes and listen in silence for one minute. At the end of the minute they write down in English all the sounds they heard while their eyes were closed: 'a car', 'a door', 'the wind', 'a person walking'...
• Students work in pairs to complete a grid like the one below, using vocabulary they have recently studied, e.g., as revision at the end of term / before a test.

Word	Part of speech	Opposite	Similar word	Rhyming word	Example sentence
enormous	adjective	tiny	huge		My dad’s feet are enormous!
worse	comparative adjective	better		nurse	My grammar is bad, but my spelling is worse!
heard	verb, past of hear			bird	Say it again. I don’t think he heard you.

• Before doing a speaking activity describing a house, students brainstorm vocabulary to produce a mind-map. They consult each other, the dictionary or the teacher for the words they don't know.
• Students read a text and answer questions about difficult vocabulary which encourage them to work out the meaning from context.
• Students look at pictures of a variety of things: spiders, ice-cream, a beautiful landscape, a fun-fair, etc., and have to react to each one: 'She's beautiful!'; 'That's horrible!'; 'That's boring!'
• Each student chooses a word they like and says why they like it, or draws a picture.
• Students label classroom items in English.
• Students work in pairs or small groups to match words that rhyme.
• Students think of someone very important to them and choose five words or phrases to describe that person, e.g., 'kind', 'blond hair', 'funny', 'fat', 'pretty'.

Apart from working actively on learning vocabulary in class students have to take responsibility for studying outside class as well. In order to do this, they need to find systems of recording vocabulary.

Different techniques will appeal to different learners. Some techniques are particularly suited to certain aspects of vocabulary learning. Working on a grid may be a good way to deal with relationships between words, e.g., imagine-imagination-imaginative-imaginable-unimaginable. Drawing a picture may help students to understand and remember prepositions such as in, on, behind, next to, etc. Singing a song may help students to master the pronunciation of words.

In addition to these ideas, some other ways to record vocabulary can be used at word level:

• Word + translation.
• Word + picture.
• Word in an example sentence.
• Word + definition.
• Word + pronunciation (syllables and stress).
• Word + information (formal/informal, medical, legal, etc.)
• Word(s) in a text.
• Word + opposite/synonym.
• Word cards (English on front, L1 on back).
• Word + grammar (verb, noun, adverb, etc.)

At this point, some techniques will be analysed in order to record vocabulary:

• Vocabulary notes. Encourage students to keep vocabulary notebooks or files. These can be kept in a variety of ways -whatever the students prefer. Introduce them to different ways of doing this, in order to get them to try out new ideas. A useful technique is to ask them to experiment, at a week time, with different ways of recording new vocabulary (e.g., week one: note the translation; week two: write an example sentence; week three: group words on similar topics; week four: give the dictionary definition). After a few weeks they will probably realise that different words demand different treatment. A word like 'cod' is probably best dealt by a translation, a word like 'nice' is better delat by a series of examples. They will also realise which ways are most meaningful to them.
• Games. It is often useful for students to work together. They can quiz each other, to make learning new words more fun. The spelling game The Hangman is an old favourite that can help students learn and remember vocabulary. Another fun activity is back-spelling. One student 'writes' a word on a friend's back with a finger (you need to write quite large, and slowly). The friend has to guess the word. This is especially good for students who have difficulties with spelling.

In addition to these proposals, other techniques can be really useful when studying vocabulary, such as the following:

• Underlining or highlighting words in a text.
• Keeping word lists and reading through them regularly.
• Recording new words onto a CD or computer.
• Covering the word in your notebook and guessing if from the definition or translation.
• Asking a friend to test you.
• Carrying cards in your pocket with new vocabulary written on them.
• Using a dictionary to find vocabulary on a certain topic.
• Repeating words to yourself many times.
• Making up stories using new vocabulary.
• Collecting items such as tickets, advertisements, or packets with new words on them.